1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of roadway safety, and more particularly to devices to place cones and other removable markers on a roadway surface.
2. Description of Related Arts
Roadway markers, such as cones (which are stackable in a nestable manner), and other structures are widely used in the United States and other countries to enhance the safety of workers during road construction and repair, to close lanes in the vicinity of accident sites, and for a myriad of other purposes. A number of devices have been developed to automatically set roadway markers on roadway surfaces. These include the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,648 to Luoma and U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,464 to Nicholson et al. disclose cone dispensing and collecting devices that are mounted to a truck. In the case of the Luoma device, it includes two rotatable cone conveyors that can be set off on one side of a pickup""s bed. It relies on the two closely spaced together and rotating discs to pick up and set roadway cones. The Nicholson et al. reference discloses a device that is similar to the Luoma device, except that it is much larger and more complicated. Both devices appear to function in a similar manner. The Nicholson et al. device is connected to the back of a flatbed truck, and can be swung back onto the truck when not in use.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,750,900 to Piercey discloses a specialized vehicles that functions as a traffic cone retriever. Is has a catcher portion at the front of a conveyor system that slants from the front to the back of the specialized vehicle. The device requires that the vehicle be driven directly into the path of the cones to be retrieved.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,334 to Akita et al. discloses an apparatus for setting and removing cones on a roadway. It includes a conveyor belt system on the back of a flat bed truck, and a cone lowering and setting mechanism. The mechanism includes hydraulically activated arms that drop and swing out and release the cone.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,525,021 to Larguier discloses a truck mounted device for setting and removing cones on a roadway. The Larguier device includes a carousel unit that has multiple chutes with a number of stacked and nested cones inside. A forked finger unit allows only one cone at a time to be dropped onto the roadway surface. When the cones are first dropped on the roadway surface, they are laying on their side. Another part of the apparatus later xe2x80x9crightsxe2x80x9d the cone on the roadway surface.
A common feature of all these devices is that they include a dedicated vehicle and are relatively complete in design and operation. It is therefore not surprising that most highway authorities, such as the California Department of Transportation and other larger organizations continue to rely on manual methods to set and pick up highway cones. This is typically accomplished as follows: One worker drives a truck (such as a flatbed or pickup truck with cones stacked in the back), while another worker sits on the back of the truck and reaches over the side of the truck to either place or pick up the cones, all while the truck is driven relatively slowly. This requires the worker on the back of the truck to reach out from the side of the truck, exposing the worker to excessive strain, injury, and in rare cases, dangerous contact with other passing vehicles. In order to allow the worker on the back of the truck to safely place and retrieve cones, the truck must be driven at a relatively slow pace (or alternately speed up and slow down). The manual process for setting up and picking up roadway cones is slow, labor intensive, and is disruptive to the flow of traffic. These add up to increased labor costs, benefits costs, insurance, and legal costs. In addition, there is the inevitable traffic delays and disruptions during the setting process. Indeed, since the process to lay or pick up a long line of cones is time consuming, very often the process begins long in advance of the actual need for the cones, which further disrupts traffic.
There accordingly remains a need for a simple, low cost, and reliable device to set roadway cones in a fast, safe, and reliable manner.
On object of the invention is to provide a simple, low cost, and reliable device for use in setting roadway cones on a roadway surface.
Another object of the invention is to provide a device for use in setting roadway cones on a roadway surface that can be detachably fitted to a standard vehicle to avoid the need for a dedicated vehicle.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a device for use in setting roadway cones on a roadway surface that can be used with or without an optional conveyor system to reload the device with stacks of nested roadway cones.
A further object of the invention is to provide a device for use in setting roadway cones on a roadway surface that can be loaded with a stack of cones but will set a single cone at a time a desired distance apart.
These and other objects of the invention are satisfied by providing a cone setting device including a hopper portion for holding a plurality of stacked cones, a feeder portion that ensures that a single cone is dropped at a time, a chute alignment portion through which individual cones will drop and be set on a roadway surface, motive means to activate the feeder portion, and control means to control the motive means.
The device alternatively includes a conveyor means to deliver stacks of cones to the hopper portion to provide for automatic reloading of the hopper with stacks of cones.